Iraq Suwaydan

Template:Infobox former Arab villages in Palestine Iraq Suwaydan (عراق سويدان) was a Palestinian Arab village located 27 kilometers northeast of Gaza City. In 1931, the village had 81 houses. The village infrastructure was destroyed with the exception of the Tegart fort built by the British Mandate authorities.

History

In the late nineteenth century, Iraq Suwaydan was described as a moderate-sized village situated on a plain.

In 1942 the villagers established an elementary school, which from 1947 they shared with the neighboring villages of Ibdis and Bayt 'Affa. The total number of student was 104 in the mid-1940s.

The main crop of the village was grain, but small areas was also planted with almond trees and grapes. In 1944/45 a total of 7,329 dunums was allocated to cereals, 9 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.

1948, and after

Israeli soldiers with the fortress of Iraq Suwaydan in the distance

On May 15 the British authorities gave the local population control over the police fortress. Despite eight separate attacks, the Israelis failed to capture the fort, which controlled the road between al-Majdal and Bayt Jibrin as well as the main road to the Negev. It finally fell on 9 November 1948 after a massive bombardment including air strikes by B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft.

The bombardment, 9 November 1948.

In 1953 Yad Natan was founded to the east of the site on village land. In 1955 Otzem was established on village land, to the southeast of the site. In 1956 Sde Yoav was established to the west of the site, close to village land.

According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the remaining structures on the village land were in 1992: "The debris of houses are hidden within a forest of eucalyptus trees that cover the village center. Cacti and the remnants of a pool are visible. Two old village streets, one passing through the site and the other through the land, are clearly recognizable. The British police station is still in use and is now called Metzodat Yo'av. The surrounding lands are now cultivated by Israeli farmers."

See also

Itzhak Sadeh visits the police fortress at Iraq Suwaydan, November 8, 1948

• List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

Bibliography

• Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
• Benvenisti, Meron (2002). Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23422-2. Retrieved 2013-11-05. P. 42
• Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, H. H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, retrieved 2013-11-05
• Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
• Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas (PDF). Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
• Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7.
• Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• Seriy, Gregory (2007): ‘Iraq Suweidan Final Report, Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel, No. 119.

External links

• Iraq-Suwaydan